General Education Essay -- Economics

General Education Except for a brief contraction in the early 1990s, the higher education system in the United States has been growing steadily since the late 1970s. Roughly half of all Americans now have attended college at some point in their lives, and roughly a quarter hold a postsecondary degree.(In the United Kingdom, by contrast, less than 15 percent of the population goes to university.) There are 14.5 million students in American colleges and universities today. In 1975 there were a little over 11 million; in 1965 there were fewer than 6 million. And yet when a person in higher education talk about its conditions and its prospects, doom is often in their voices. There are three matters these people tend to worry about: the future of liberal arts college; the "collapse"(as its frequently termed) of the academic disciplines, particularly the humanities; and the seemingly intractable disparity between the supply of Ph.D.s and the demand for new faculty. There are more college student than ever. Why does the system feel to many of the people who work in it as though it is struggling? (Menand, Louis pg 219) Many people are flocking to college, but there not going there for a traditional liberal arts education. Liberal education is under siege. Critics, of whom there are many; call it an overpriced indulgence for the affluent few who do not have to worry about earning a living upon graduation. Fewer and fewer of today's undergraduates are pursuing the liberal arts, with most of them studying practical subjects like finance, marketing, real estate and pharmacy.(Rimer, Sara) Studying just the practical subjects makes very good sense to most people. Why bother studying things you won't use in your d... ...neral education classes for the most part are what people refer to as cake classes, which means easy grade. I personally like general education courses they help to round off a person's knowledge. It also serves as a break from your major courses. Some people may like to jump right into there major to make money fast; my personal preference is to become the most intelligent person I can in college so that I have more to offer later on in life.(This paragraph was taken from an earlier work of mine.) Works Cited Gould, Stephen Jay, ed. The Best American Essays 2002. NY: Houghton Muflin, 2002. Menand, Louis. "College: The End of the Golden Age." Ed. Stephen Jay Gould. 219-231. Rimer, Sara. "Justifying a Liberal Arts Education in Difficult Times." New York Times 19 Feb. 2003: B7 Vargas Llosa, Mario. "Why Literature?" Ed. Stephen Jay Gould. 295-308